Writers of feminist dystopian fiction are alert to the realities that grind down women's lives, that make the unthinkable suddenly thinkable.
Naomi AldermanRead
The demands of having to be 'masculine' are as damaging to men as the demands of having to be 'feminine' are to women. I wish we could all agree just to wash it all away. Begin again.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pressures of gender roles harm both men and women, and we should aim to move beyond them.
Naomi Alderman highlights the detrimental effects that societal expectations of masculinity and femininity have on individuals. She suggests that both men and women face pressures that can be damaging, and she advocates for a collective effort to break free from these constraints and start anew, promoting a more egalitarian view of gender roles.
Themes
GenderMasculinityFemininitySocietyRolesEqualityFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on gender equality, this quote can highlight the need for changing societal expectations.
More from Naomi Alderman
All quotes →When a marriage founders, this may well be cause for tremendous sadness, but it's not a failure of spirit or character. People change, their goals and dreams alter, their ideas of themselves grow, or they just meet someone they like better.
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One of the hardest challenges posed by the modern world is how to deal with abundance. It's even harder to confront because admitting that it's a problem seems spoiled.
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I hope that there are many more women out there writing bits of feminist sci-fi. And men, also - men are allowed to write feminist things.
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The arts are valuable because they increase our sense of what it means to be human, not because of any specific skill or ability they confer.
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More choice doesn't make us happy, and we understand that no one has infinite choices about how to live life.
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